Manchester United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard claims football supporters are
too intolerant to accept a gay footballer, but insists that “homosexuals are
in need of a hero” in the sport.

Despite a number of high-profile male and female athletes choosing to go public with their sexuality in recent years, the only footballer to come out as a homosexual since the late Justin Fashanu in 1990 is Anton Hysen, a Swedish lower league player.

Recent outbreaks of racist and anti-Semitic chanting at Premier League grounds have damaged the reputation of football in England, however, and Lindegaard, presently dating the model Misse Beqiri, believes that the nature of supporters on the terraces does little to encourage homosexual players to be open about their sexuality.

“Homosexuals are in need of a hero,” Lindegaard said in his blog. “They are in need of someone who dares to stand up for their sexuality. But homosexuality in football is a taboo subject and the atmosphere on the pitch and in the stands is tough.

“As a footballer, I think a homosexual colleague would be afraid of the reception he could get from the fans, but my impression is that the players would not have a problem accepting a homosexual.

“The problem for me is that a lot of football fans are stuck in a time of intolerance that does not deserve to be compared with modern society’s development in the last decades.

“While the rest of the world has been more liberal, civilised and less prejudiced, the world of football remains stuck in the past when it comes to tolerance.

“To turn a blind eye only indicates that one is not recognising that there is a problem.”

Lindegaard fears that promising footballers could be lost to the game as a result of their sexuality.

“Of course there is a problem if young homosexuals, who love football, have to quit the sport because they feel excluded.” Lindegaard said. “That is in every way an unpleasant trend that does not belong in a modern and liberal society.”